Sage Sankara's Nirguna Brahman (God in truth) is impersonal.+

Sage Sankara’s whole wisdom can be summed up in one sentence, ‘There is nothing else but Brahman. He says that Absolute Existence, Absolute Knowledge, and Absolute Bliss are real. The universe is not real. He says that Brahma and Atman are one. 

The ultimate and Absolute Truth is the Self, which is one, though appearing as many different individuals. The individual has no reality. Only the Self is real; the rest, mental and physical are but passing appearances. 

Genuine philosophy must be independent of religion, that in Sage Sankara himself the Saguna Brahman or a personal God is only a part of the phenomenal (if not illusory) world, and the Nirguna Brahman is the only reality and has nothing to do with religion.  

Sage  Sankara pokes fun at ascetics and points out that all their austerities do not cause desires to go (Altar Flowers" Page 205, v.2 P.207 v.4)

The Brahma Sutras together with Sage  Sankara's commentary thereon do not contain the higher wisdom. They are intended for those who are incapable of thinking rationally.

Sage Sankara's commentary on the Brahma Sutras is not on a philosophical basis, but on an orthodox and mystic basis, with an appeal to the Vedas as the final authority.

In Brahma Sutra Sage Sankara takes the position that there is another entity outside us, i.e. the wall really exists separately from the mind. This was because Sage  Sankara explains in Manduka Upanishad that those who study the Sutras are orthodox minds, and intellectual children, hence his popular viewpoint to assist them. These people are afraid to go deeper because it means being heroic enough to refuse to accept Sruti, and God's authority, in case they mean punishment by God.  A Gnani says the scriptures are for children, but wise seekers will think rationally.

In Brahma Sutras Sage Sankara takes for granted, and assumes that a world was created: He there mixes dogmatic theology with philosophy.

That God created the world is an absolute lie, nevertheless one will find Sage  Sankara (in his commentary on Vedanta Sutras) clearly says this! He has to adapt his teachings to his audience, reserving the highest for philosophical minds.

The text of Brahma Sutras is based on religion and dogmatism, but in the commentary Sage  Sankara cleverly introduced some philosophy. If it is objected that a number of Upanishads are equally dogmatic because they also begin by assuming Brahman, only a few Upanishads do not but prove Brahman at the end of a train of proof.

Scholars' translations of Brahma Sutras in Sacred Books of East must be read cautiously as he has not understood its highest sense, e.g. for Advaita, they wrongly put "Unity" instead of “Non-duality."

Sage Sankara gave religion and scholasticism and yoga no less than philosophy, to the seeking world. He was great enough to be able to do so. His commentary on Manduka is pure philosophy, but many of his other books are presented from a religious standpoint to help those who cannot rise up to philosophy.

Orthodoxy is the home of mysticism and deification which is why they are not keen on the rational truth. Thus, Sage Sankara is the Jagadguru to the religious followers and he is a Brahma Gnani to the seeking world.   

Sruti is made the final or exclusive authority in apara Vidya and for supporting the tenet of the CAUSAL relation or creatorship of Brahman, Nirguna Brahman = the "Absolute beyond qualities," which can be defined only in a negative way. For the Sankarian school = the Ultimate Reality is higher than the Lord. i.e. of Saguna or apara Brahman ... The support of Scriptural Revelation is, therefore, absolutely necessary for this hypothesis of cosmology, this Saguna or apara (= inferior) Brahman, but not for the absolute truth of Nirguna Brahman.  

Remember:~

The Nirguna Brahman (God) of Sage Sankara is impersonal.

Nirguna (without Gunas or attributes),

Nirakara (formless),

Nirvisesha (without special characteristics),

Immutable, eternal, and Akarta (non-agent).

It is above all needs and desires. It is always the Witnessing Subject.

It can never become an object as it is beyond the reach of the senses.

Brahman is non-dual, one without a second.

It has no other besides it. It is destitute of difference, either external or internal.

Brahman cannot be described because the description implies distinction. Brahman cannot be distinguished from any other than It. In Brahman, there is not distinction between substance and attribute.

Sat-Chit-Ananda constitutes the very essence or Svarupa of Brahman and not just Its attributes.

The religion of the Veda knows no idols. All the idols worshiped as God s are non-Vedic God s. If idols are of the non-Vedic God s then why so many Gods and Goddesses with different forms and names are being propagated as Vedic God. Why these conceptual Gods are introduced when the Vedic concept of God is free from form and attributes.

Sage Sankara: ~ VC- Let erudite scholars quote all the scripture, let God be invoked through sacrifices, let elaborate rituals be performed, let personal God s be propitiated---yet, without the realization of one‘s identity With the ‘‘Self’’, there shall be no liberation for the individual, not even in the lifetimes of a hundred Brahmas put together (verses-6)

Rig Veda: ~ The Atman is the cause; Atman is the support of all that exists in this universe. May ye never turn away from the Atman, the ‘‘Self’’. May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman?" (10:48, 5)

God and Goddesses worshiped in India today are non-Vedic God s. Such Gods and Goddesses cease to exist without the dualistic illusion. Whatever belongs to the dualistic illusion is bound to be an illusion.

Rig Veda clearly declares that God is Atman and never accepts another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman. Then why worship any other God in place of the Atman, the real God.

 Bhagavad Gita: ~ Brahmano hi pratisthaham ~ Brahman (God in truth) is considered the all-pervading consciousness (Spirit), which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material. (14.27).

When Bhagavad Gita says, God is considered the all-pervading consciousness (Spirit) which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material then nothing has to be accepted as God other than consciousness.

Lord Krishna says Ch ~V: ~ “Those who know the Self in truth.". The last two words (tattvataha) are usually ignored by pundits, but they make all the difference between the ordinary concept of God and the truth about God.

The dualistic worship of "God” is only for the ignorant populace. The God in truth is only Atman, the innermost ‘‘Self’’. In reality, there is no duality, no differentiation. Only Atman exists.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~ Brahman (God in truth ) is in the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself.

Yajurveda – chapter- 32:~  God is Supreme Spirit has no ‘Pratima’ (idol) or material shape. God cannot be seen directly by anyone. God pervades all beings and all directions. Thus, Idolatry does not find any support from the Vedas.

Yajurveda says God is Supreme Spirit and has no idol or material shape. God cannot be seen directly by anyone. God pervades all beings and all directions. Thus, Idolatry does not find any support from the Vedas. Therefore, why worship God s when they cease to exist without the dualistic illusion.

This clearly indicates Vedic God is Atman, the Self. Thus,  Self -realization is God-realization. Self’-realization itself is real worship.

Sage Sankara says: ~ Ataman is Brahman. Thus, the Soul the innermost ‘‘‘Self’’’ is God. Therefore, all the Gods with form and attributes are imaginations based on the false self. Thus, there are adulteration and add-ons in the past, which have to be bifurcated if one wants pure Vedic essence.

Yajurveda says they sink deeper into darkness those who worship what is not God in truth: ~

Yajurveda

Translation 1.

They enter darkness, those who worship natural things (for example air, water, sun, moon, animals, fire, stone, etc).

They sink deeper into darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc.) (Yajurveda 40:9)

Translation 2.

"Deep into the shade of blinding gloom fall asambhuti's worshippers. They sink to darkness deeper yet who on sambhuti are intent."(Yajurveda Samhita by Ralph T. H. Giffith pg 538)

Translation 3.

"They are enveloped in darkness, in other words, are steeped in ignorance and sunk in the greatest depths of misery who worship the uncreated, eternal prakrti -- the material cause of the world -- in place of the All-pervading God, But those who worship visible things born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time." (Yajur Veda 40:9.)

So, Yajur Veda indicates that: ~

They sink deeper into darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things it means the matter.  

Those who worship matter in place of the Spirit which is God in truth are enveloped in still greater ignorance, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow and suffer. 

Worshipping of the non-Vedic God s will not yield any fruit. The Veda and Upanishads confirm God is Atman (spirit), the innermost ‘‘Self’’. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar